Yesterday (5 Feb), the European Commission adopted and published the outcome of the long awaited REACH review. “It is to say the least, satisfying to see that the European Commission is committed to regulatory predictability and stability – key factors in welcoming industrial investment back into Europe – perhaps just the catalyst needed to build on, allowing the manufacturing sector to continue adding value with a strong prospect of jobs and growth” said Adrian Harris, Director General of Orgalime. “For once, a review has not resulted in a major overhaul of a piece of EU legislation as complex and critical as REACH – the focus rightly remains on implementation” added Harris.

Nevertheless, details of how to improve implementation are sketchy and remain a topic for discussion. In particular, the identified overlaps with other EU sector specific legislation (in Orgalime’s case, the RoHS2 Directive), could be costly. The Commission Staff Working Document correctly spots the issue which, if not properly addressed during the implementation processes of both REACH and RoHS2, risks upsetting the EU’s overall consistency of chemicals legislation, notwithstanding hampering the competitiveness of EU manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment in Europe.

Orgalime maintains its stance that improving REACH implementation and ensuring an implementation of RoHS2 that is truly coherent with REACH (as article 6 RoHS2 states), is crucial. We invite the Commission to tackle this issue as a matter of priority and remain committed to provide input to this debate.

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Notes for Editors:

(1) General Report on REACH [more]

(2) COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT, General Report on REACH, REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS, Brussels, 5 February 2013, SWD(2013)25 [more]

Orgalime, the European Engineering Industries Association, speaks for 39 trade federations representing some 130,000 companies in

the mechanical, electrical, electronic, metalworking & metal articles industries of 22 European countries. The industry employs some

10.2 million people in the EU and in 2011 accounted for some €1,666 billion of annual output. The industry not only represents some

28% of the output of manufactured products but also a third of the manufactured exports of the European Union